Cherry Chances
by Omnicat
Summary: It started with her favourite treat, cherries and molten ice–cream, but ended with something even less substantial, hardly more than the promise of possibility. 2xR


**Title:** Cherry Chances

**Author:** Omnicat

**Spoilers & Desirable Foreknowledge:** Gundam Wing in its entirety.

**Warnings:** None.

**Characters & Pairings:** Duo Maxwell x Relena Peacecraft. Hints of Heero Yuy x Dorothy Catalonia and Hilde Schbeiker x Trowa Barton.

**Summary:** It started with her favourite treat, cherries and molten ice–cream, but ended with something even less substantial, hardly more than the promise of possibility. 2xR

**Author's Note:** Enjoy!

**II-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-I-oOo-I-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-II**

**Cherry Chances**

Relena wasn't sure how Duo had gotten into her kitchen. Again. But you never do with Gundam pilots, do you? She also wasn't sure why she tolerated him stealing her special day-off-treat, but for some reason, she didn't mind as much as she normally did. Ah well. There was enough for the both of them, she supposed. And his company was always welcome. His casual friendliness and unbridled enthusiasm provided a refreshing change from the stiff, formal diplomats and office workers she was surrounded with most of the time.

She would just have to make sure the ever overprotective Heero wouldn't find out his security system was being breeched. Even now that he was settling down (if one could honestly call getting engaged to Dorothy Catalonia 'settling down'... Relena would have to keep an eye on those two herself, to make sure nobody got killed), his keenness on looking after her was undiminished. It reminded Relena of the way older brothers were said to behave - when they weren't off on some crazy revenge mission, formed the opposing party in a war, or vanished into thin air, that is.

No, Relena couldn't ask for a better companion in her spare time than the young man with the quick tongue and the long hair (which made such a magnificent sight in the warm light streaming in through the windows) currently sitting beside her at the kitchen table, and she would do wise to keep his access to her house as it was. Lying clashed with her conscious, but it was worth it in this case.

Duo popped another one of her cherries into his mouth, not bothering to finish his sentence first. "- and, well, after seeing your housemate in _that_ kinda position - I swear, I never thought Hilde could bend that way. Probably not the first time Trowa 'showed her how to do that', if you get what I'm saying."

He winked at her, making her giggle. That gave him the vague, half-amused, half-intrigued expression she recognized as his reaction to her 'high class' mannerisms: putting her hand over her full mouth as she laughed, this time. She looked down and stirred her bowl of ice-cream fiercely, turning it into a slush. It was strange, the way he seemed to be able to forget who it was he was sharing such juicy gossip with, only to be surprised when she reminded him. The fact that he never seemed embarrassed when he realised he was cracking dirty jokes with the Vice Foreign Minister was a pleasant surprise, every time again. When Dorothy did the same thing, Relena knew she meant it to shock and embarrass her. But when Duo did it, it was just because that was what he was like. Apparently, she made him feel comfortable enough to forget about such bothersome things as social status and etiquette, and that in turn made her feel... well, she wasn't able to put her finger on it, but it was warm and fuzzy. Quite nice.

"It's melting, you know." Duo remarked idly, seeming to have lost track of his last subject. He took the stem of his cherry, which he had been playing with in between talking, out of his mouth to drop it into the bowl they used for the waste of their small 'party'.

Relena nodded, smiling. "It's supposed to. I like ice-cream better this way - soft, but still cold. Somewhere between ordinary cream and soft-ice. Preferably with cherries, of course."

Duo's eyebrows shot up. "But aren't you supposed to eat _strawberries_ with cream, not cherries? I'm not an expert on the wiles of the rich and famous, but..."

Relena raised an eyebrow back. "I'm not about to let social norms dictate my choice of snacks. God knows I have to arrange enough of my lifestyle to fit public expectations."

"True, true." Duo replied with a grin. A mischievous glint appeared in his eyes as he leaned his elbows on the table and nonchalantly swiped another cherry from Relena's bowl. As he dipped the fruit into her cream, he looked at her from beneath his bangs and said in a husky voice: "Talking about the public... Do you know what they say about cherry stems?"

He put the fruit into his mouth, stem and all, and after a few moments stuck out his tongue to show that only the stem was left, still looking at her with a fiendish glint in his eyes. Relena looked at him quizzically, unable to decide whether she should find him disgusting or not, but more inclined to think his antics rather cute. No, cute wasn't the right word. His attempt at looking enough like a sleek, hypnotizing predator to send shivers down her spine worked too well to call him 'cute' then.

"Unfortunately, no." she said, managing to keep her voice steady, her face straight and her skin cool. "But I'm sure you're just dying to tell me."

Duo popped the stem back into his mouth, suddenly looking smug. Relena watched with growing curiosity as he moved it around in his mouth, puffing out his cheeks, moving his jaw and making faces as if he was trying to dismember something in there. Finally, after seeming to perform one last check, he was satisfied and took the stem out of his mouth to hold it up in front of him. There was a knot in the stem. As Relena watched, though, the different parts of the stem, lubricated with saliva, slid over each other and sprung loose once again. Duo sweatdropped.

"Oh, I can put knots in cherry stems. Easy." Smirking, she took another one of the glossy, deep red delicacies and proceeded to give a demonstration. Duo's eyes all but bulged at how fast she was. "Is that what they say? That tying a cherry stem into a knot is hard to do?" she asked as she held up her accomplishment: a stem with a neat, tight knot in it.

Duo went red and seemed unsure of where to look, though anywhere but at her showed a clear preference. "Actually, they say that if you can tie a cherry stem into a knot, you're a great kisser."

Now it was Relena's turn to blush. She had just, in complete and utter oblivion, showed him that she was a great kisser?

"N - nonsense." she stuttered. She quickly dropped her stem in the waste bowl. "Why would those things have anything to do with each other?"

Duo went another shade redder and scratched his head sheepishly, still not looking at her. "Well, it doesn't apply to a simple kiss on the cheek or, you know, a 'standard' kiss on the mouth, but if you're gonna french..."

Relena was utterly lost.

Duo stopped when he glanced up furtively and spotted her expression. "Don't tell me you've never french kissed before." he said incredulously.

"My social life isn't all that spectacular, Duo... Never has been, either." She scraped her throat, trying to dispel the unreasonable embarrassment she felt. "I'm afraid I don't even know what 'french kissing' entails."

"Tongue. Lots and lots of tongue." Duo deadpanned.

"Oh..." Relena fruitlessly tried to imagine a realistic kiss involving the kind of oral acrobatics she had just preformed on the cherry stem. "How - Who - When - No, that's... Well, I mean... uhm... Oh."

Duo shot her an almost shy look and pulled his braid over his shoulder to occupy his hands with the tip. "So you've really never frenched? Geeze, what a shame... I mean, look at what you did to that cherry stem..." He bit his lip, and then suddenly looked up at her and blurted out: "Could I try you out?"

Relena's eyes widened. There was a moment of silence before he smacked himself, looking like he would like to rip his tongue out. He looked at her nervously, aware of the sudden, dramatic change of atmosphere. Relena was shocked. What's more, she was at a loss for words, the nightmare of every politician. Her brains felt frozen, even though they were provided with more than enough fuel; her face burned like a furnace.

He wanted to kiss her.

He wanted to kiss her! No, wait, there's no reason to panic. This was Duo. Duo Maxwell. He kissed girls just for fun sometimes. She knew that, he'd told her himself. Was he joking? No, he couldn't be, if he wasn't serious, even just a little bit, he wouldn't seem so embarrassed by his undeniably awkward request. A friend he could weird out without batting an eye, but someone more than a friend? Try her out? What was she, a car on display? Oh, he didn't mean it like that, she could see it in his eyes, but the sentiment had to have been there somewhere, to come out so suddenly.

Unable to bear his gaze, Relena looked down at her bowl of chilled cherry-and-cream-sludge. In her mind, she was grappling for a strong expression to pour the chaos that had suddenly erupted in her mind into. There were some she had picked up from Duo, but those seemed highly inappropriate at that moment. Her high-class upbringing had not prepared her for the urge to swear, her treasured hours with Duo had not prepared her for physical or romantic attraction. It felt like she had opened a closet door and the things piled up inside were spilling out, burying her, like you'd see happening in a children's cartoon. A dam seemed to have given in, unleashing a wave of scalding hot water into a mellow basin. Almost immediately, it started to go _click click click_ in her memory, the frantic connecting of dots.

To say the sudden request seemed to come out of the blue would be untrue, but the surprise made her mind recoil, almost going beyond her control. Heat broke out all over her body, in her hands, her face, her thighs, shins and back. She struggled to keep her emotions in check and think clearly. When had the signs first started showing up?

Good grief... Duo might be in love with her! But they were such good friends! If they tried... whatever this indicated, and it didn't work out, would they ever be able to go back to that? Oh, who was she trying to kid? If Duo already had feelings for her, there was no going back. Why hadn't she caught on to this before, then she would have been prepared.

Calm down, Relena, calm down and think.

Was there any way to tell what the true face of his feelings was? Simple lust for an attractive woman, true love born from a dear friendship, or the in-between called infatuation? No... Not a clue. She knew only few sides of him; the Gundam pilot, the scrap yard worker, the friend during the quiet free hours at home. There was no way for her to tell what this new side meant, where it came from, what it wanted.

Whatever they were, ignoring his feelings would be the worst thing she could possibly do. If she wanted to avoid putting a strain on their relationship - wasn't that the entire reason for her panicking? - there was no other option than to deal with it. And for crying out loud, treating this like a political relationship was just wrong! Duo was a dear friend, one she cherished, and she would never forgive herself if she hurt him. Relena felt a pang in her chest, and the uncomfortable realisation hit her that the question was not how to react to Duo's feelings, but what her own were.

She'd kept him waiting for a reply, any at all, for too long. As she looked up at him, the shock that had occupied her mind was turning into true panic - she didn't know what she felt, what he felt, what to do, not even what to say! And as her eyes met his, her heart lurched in her chest because of the beauty his deep blue eyes seemed to suddenly have gained, and her gut wrenched because of the remorse and uncertainty in his boyish features, and she still didn't know what she felt, or what he felt. But she knew _him_, well enough to know what _not_ to say or do. And she knew that he was precious enough to her to want to keep him (if he could ask to 'try her out', she could want to 'keep him', puh).

"I have no experience with french kissing, Duo." Relena said, trying (and fearing she failed miserably) to sound casual, instead of like she was trying to buy herself time. "None at all. My job has never allowed me to have an elaborate love life. I'm not a scientist, but surely that's no way to test what the people say."

If she knew him at all, he was carefully weighing his words as he said slowly: "Well... since you've already proven your skill with the cherry stem, maybe - maybe it'll come naturally." He swallowed thickly, though relief was evident on his face. "So... will you try?"

Relena felt the urge to say something. As wrong as it seemed to treat Duo like she would a political debate, she was a mediator at heart. She needed to voice her opinions, to create clarity from complicated situations through words. It was the way she worked. But Duo was a man of action; words did not have the same weight to him as they did to her. Nor did the truth, complete, minimalistic, ruthless truth, hold the same value to Duo as it did to Heero, the only other man she had ever been in this kind of situation with.

Relena had scared off enough potential suitors to know where to look for the cause; the explanations had ranged from 'too fierce' to 'unnervingly forward and open' to 'she's even worse in private than on the political stage'. It hadn't bothered her at the time, as she hadn't _really_ cared for the men in question. They had been interesting, but nothing more. She would wait until one came by that could appreciate her for those traits.

One like Heero, only without the addiction to conflict that set them apart, disappointing the tabloid press and granting both him and her a valuable lesson in the ways of life. Old habits die hard; patterns, once set, are not easy to break. Heero had been lucky enough to find someone who could relate to his character and, better yet, knew how not to let it affect their relationship negatively. It wasn't the safest match, but they seemed to be having fun together, and so far they'd been able to overcome their difficulties. Relena had never had that luck, and had never met anyone she cared enough about and, more importantly, _wanted_ enough to consider restraining herself or reconsidering her ways for in order to make romance work.

But Duo was different. She wanted to keep him. The thought of losing him frightened her, more than she had ever imagined. Oh dear, that must be a clue...

Maybe... she could try it his way. After all, wasn't that what they usually did? She would want to relax after work, in the weekends, during holidays, to abandon the tiring role of a politician who had to watch her every step and weigh her every word. And he would be there with a complete lack of political correctness, cracking jokes, ranting and raving, offering a shoulder to cry on or asking for a listening ear for his own problems - and making her forget about all the reasons she had not to do the exact same thing. Would that change if they... tried to become more than the friends they were now? Already he was more careful, but when expectations and fear of rejection were part of the equation that, was only to be expected.

She didn't see any reason their winning formula should change. Not yet, anyway. There was no way to tell whether it would hold, but no matter how high a tree grew, he could never deny its roots. While a relationship as one-dimensional as they had now could not be healthy, there would be more than enough time and opportunity to expand on it through gentle exploration, if they were to plant this seed. The branches and their direction were concerns of the future. All that mattered now was that their whatever-it-was would not be smothered in the bud.

Was this a sign of friendship, this willingness to play the game by his rules for once just to make sure they wouldn't be parted? Or did it indicate deeper feelings, or a fundamental lack of understanding of the difference between love and friendship, or a lowly inclination to cheap adventures, or desperation born from the abysmal state of her love life, or temporary insanity? Did it really matter?

She wouldn't mind taking her relationship with Duo one step further, would she? She searched her heart and found that while she might be startled by the sudden turn of events - she was really taking this too seriously, while at the same time feeling dangerously frivolous and hasty - but that no, she wouldn't mind. Not at all.

And as a matter of fact... the thought of kissing Duo was rather exiting. And that was all she needed. Hormones. Why the Hell not? God knew there were much worse options.

Giving in to an impulse had never seemed so alluring.

With a smile of wonder she looked up at him. "If I turn out to be bad at it... will you teach me?"

An almost vulnerable, tentative, hopeful joy lit his face as he shifted in his chair to face her directly. "Relena, do you -"

She put a finger on his lips. "Will you?" she asked, looking deep into his eyes. "Will you give me a chance to learn, and not give up on me immediately, even if I seem to be a disappointment at first?"

After a moment of unknown tension and deep gazes, he nodded, and Relena leaned forward before she could change her mind. He smelled like cherries. The opaque blue of his eyes was almost uncomfortably intense from such a small distance.

"You can close your eyes if that makes you more comfortable." he said, almost as if he had read her mind.

It was impossible to tell what this would lead to. If she took this last step, she would have to proceed with whatever came next. Relena had no experience with this and found herself unable to predict Duo's next move. It was almost shocking to realise how little she really knew about him. But the prospect of getting to learn more about the hidden gem that she suddenly realised Duo was, exhilarated her. It was a risk, but one she was willing to take. The pros outweighed the cons, and furthermore, her heart seemed to tell her logical mind to shut up and kiss him already.

He wanted to try her out. And if anything, she found herself flattered by that. She wanted to keep him. If there was enough to support love, she wasn't sure, but what better way was there to find out?

Relena closed her eyes. The breath fanning out over her face smelled of cherries, and the lips that were placed on hers were soft and supple and set her on fire, catching her by surprise despite herself. Her pulse quickened, and suddenly her senses seemed to increase tenfold in intensity. Thank goodness she had her eyes closed, for she feared she might have fainted if she had had to look at him.

When Duo's lips parted and she felt the press of his tongue asking for permission to enter, she complied. Lightning struck as their tongues touched. And he tasted just like he smelled: of cherries, and just a hint of cream.

**II-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-I-oOo-I-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-o-II**

**PSAN:** Hope you liked it. ^_^


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